Frank Miller’s first solo directorial effort, an adaptation of Will Eisner’s The Spirit, hits theaters on Christmas Day.  Whether The Spirit movie is a hit like Sin City and 300 or something less, Miller’s legions of fans are likely to want to check out The Spirit’ Storyboards ($49.95) hardcover from Dark Horse, which contains nearly seven hundred pieces of new Frank Miller artwork juxtaposed with the screenplay that Miller penned about Eisner’s masked crime-fighter from Wildwood Cemetery. 

The deluxe, large format (11” x 8.5”) Frank Miller: The Spirit Storyboards is slated for release on May 6th.

The “green screen” process used in creating movies such as Sin City, 300, and The Spirit puts a premium on graphic design.  Some say it moves the reality-based film medium away from its realistic photographic roots.  It has definitely has resulted in the most highly stylized sort of filmmaking since the expressionist-influenced horror films of the 1930s such as James Whale’s Frankenstein and Edgar G. Ulmer’s The Black Cat. 

Whatever the aesthetic merits of this approach, it definitely results in films that approximate the look of graphic works (comics and graphic novels) much more closely than has ever been possible before.  In the case of The Spirit Storyboards, the process of creating a “green screen” film should provide a unique opportunity to see a modern master of the comics medium riffing on the works of one of the most influential and important creators of comics’ early years.